World news in brief, 5/16

Rebel fighters battled regime troops inside the walls of the sprawling central prison compound in Syria's largest city Wednesday, hours after blowing open the gate with twin car bombs in an attempted jailbreak, activists said.

The orchestrated assault began at dawn, but by nightfall, the rebels had not dislodged regime forces or freed some 4,000 prisoners held there, according to two pro-opposition monitoring groups.

Across Syria, the Internet was restored after a blackout of more than eight hours, the second nationwide outage in a week. Syria's Communications Ministry blamed a rebel bombing which it said cut a cable north of the capital of Damascus but gave no details. Earlier, the state news agency SANA had linked the outage to a technical problem.

U.N. approves resolution for Syria

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly approved an Arab-backed resolution Wednesday calling for a political transition in Syria, but more than 70 countries refused to vote "yes" because of its support for the main opposition group and fears the resolution could torpedo a new U.S.-Russia effort to end the escalating conflict.

The United States signed on as a co-sponsor of the resolution, saying it would promote a political solution. But key Syrian ally Russia urged a "no" vote, saying it was "counterproductive and irresponsible" to promote a one-sided resolution when Moscow and Washington are trying to get the Syrian government and opposition to agree to negotiations.

West Bank

Palestinians mark 1948 displacement

RAMALLAH — Tens of thousands of Palestinians took to the streets in the West Bank and Gaza on Wednesday to mark the 65th anniversary of their mass displacement during the war over Israel's 1948 creation.

Every May 15, Palestinians commemorate the "nakba," or "catastrophe" — the term they use to describe the displacement. Hundreds of thousands fled or were driven out during the fighting.

The dispute over the fate of those Palestinians and their descendants, now numbering several million people, remains at the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Israel views the Palestinians' return as demographic suicide and expects the displaced and their descendants to be taken in by a future Palestinian state.

Pakistan

Tribal-area battles displace thousands

PARACHINAR — A new offensive by the Pakistani military against militants in a northwestern tribal area has displaced thousands of people in the past week, an official said Wednesday.

For years, Pakistan has been battling militant groups such as the Taliban in the tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

About a week ago, the military launched a new push in Kurram, one of seven Pakistani tribal regions near the Afghan border.

Details of the fighting have not been revealed so far but on Wednesday, Mujahid Hussain, chief of disaster management efforts in Kurram, said an estimated 35,000 — 49,000 have left their villages.